


Rotten in the City

by Zelos



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 15:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2196225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelos/pseuds/Zelos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><Oh my god,> Tobias breathed. <<em>Dude.></em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Rotten in the City

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littlebirdtoldme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebirdtoldme/gifts).



It was a perfect day for flying: bright and warm, with a sweet little breeze drifting about. Columns of hot air swelled up into the sky, and Tobias coasted from one column to another, surfing on the hot air. He was actually tailing a suspected Controller, but it wasn’t  _his_ fault that humans walked so slowly, right?

Up and up and up and—

<Whoa!> Surprised, Tobias shot past the thermal he’d been aiming for. He instinctively banked and flared his tail, braking so suddenly he almost gave himself whiplash. <Whoa! _Dude!_ >

He had to be wrong (no he wasn’t, not with hawk eyes). He had to be _sure_. Controller forgotten, Tobias banked his wings and stooped into a dive. Target: a stray cat, grey with black stripes.

Gliding fifty feet above the ground, he was sure. (Truthfully, he had been sure from ten times that distance.)

<Oh my god,> Tobias breathed. < _Dude_. >

Dude spun around a second later, hissing. He crouched in Tobias’ shadow with his ears flat, tail puffed, claws extended, and teeth bared. Tensing for a fight.

<Chill, Dude. It’s just me.> Tobias landed on a nearby fence.

Dude did _not_ chill; if anything, he looked angrier. Tobias wasn’t even sure if he recognized his voice—and even if he did, so what? Dude was a cat. A _real_ cat. He didn’t understand things like thought-speak and soothing words from what was his natural predator. And real cats didn’t stop to think about confusing things like human sounds inside his own head.

<It’s just me,> Tobias tried again helplessly.

“Hissssssssss!”

<Okay. Okay.> If Tobias had been human, he would’ve raked a hand through his hair. Instead, he looked around, memorizing the neighbourhood, memorizing the nooks and crannies where a stray cat could hide.

He still had a Controller to follow. Duty called.

<I’ll be back, okay? I’ll be back,> Tobias called uselessly as he took wing.

A second later, Dude bolted away.

 

“Dude? Duuuuuuuuuuude?”

Four-and-a-half hours later, Tobias was back in the same neighbourhood, half-blind (or so it felt like) in his human morph. He wandered through the streets, stiff and clumsy on his two tottering legs. All those nooks and crannies that had seemed so clear with hawk eyes were nigh-invisible to human vision.

If Dude was going to come out, it would be because Dude found him, not the other way around.

It had taken way too long to finish his scouting duties. And bringing his human clothes into the neighbourhood took more time. What took the most time, though, was scrounging up enough money to buy cat food at the grocery store. Tobias had thought about using a fresh kill as a bribe, but mice were scarce in his meadow to begin with and he wasn’t familiar with hunting suburban rodents (and fighting all the alley cats and raccoons for the kill). Besides, even though Dude was wild now and was likely familiar with fresh kills, it seemed _wrong_ for Tobias the _boy_ to offer his cat a freshly killed mouse.

So instead, he’d hunted around for spare change and dropped bills until he had enough, and then morphed human to buy a tin of cat food. The dried stuff was cheaper for the weight, but those were too hard to carry, and Tobias wasn’t even sure if he’d see Dude enough (or even at all) to need such a large amount of food.

“Duuuuuuuuuuuuude?” he called again, peering under a parked car.

Dude had looked hungry earlier. He always looked hungry; Dude had…well, Tobias had never been sure if Dude had been entirely feral from the start, or if he was a stray abandoned by previous owners (Dude had never been really _his_ ; Tobias’ uncle barely had time to look after a _human_ kid, and certainly never bothered to buy or feed a _cat_ ). Tobias had bought Dude’s favour by feeding him his own food scraps, but Dude had never been domesticated, not really. Even so, Dude had marked Tobias as his human and deigned to visit even if his real home had been the streets.

“This is hopeless,” Tobias muttered to himself. “Duuuuuuuuude!” He flicked his fingers against the can of cat food noisily, feeling like the world’s biggest dweeb. No different than before, then. “Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude—oh!”

A flash of grey, and then even his weak human eyes spotted it: a feline face staring at him from behind a trash can. A familiar feline face.

Tobias never would’ve seen him with crappy human eyes if Dude hadn’t wanted to be seen. Dude must have recognized his voice after all.

“Hey,” Tobias crouched down, trying to make himself looks small. He pitched his voice high and soft, the way Cassie did when she was dealing with a particularly agitated animal. “Hey, boy. It’s just me.” Clumsily, he pulled the top off the can of cat food, catching his finger in the tab. “Just me, Dude.” He set the can on the ground.

Dude hissed, ears flat against his head. Tobias kept very, very still as Dude cast suspicious looks between Tobias and the tin.

But eventually, the lure of food (some sort of tuna with gravy) and a familiar human was too hard to resist. Dude approached the tin, sniffing cautiously, and then started eating with voracious abandon.

Tobias breathed a sigh of relief. He kept his gaze on Dude, taking in the bones jutting through muscle and the patches in his fur. There was a deep bite mark in his flank; it looked like Dude had recently been in a fight.

“Poor boy,” he murmured. He moved to pet the cat, but his own animal instincts held his hand: wild animals didn’t like to be touched.

Good thing too, because Dude had whipped around and swiped at him in less time than it took for him to blink.

“Okay,” Tobias conceded. “Okay, no touching.” He sat down on his butt right onto the asphalt. Good thing there weren’t any cars. “Let’s just sit here then.”

A lost boy and a stray cat. Some things hadn’t changed.

 

It took Tobias nine visits over as many weeks to map Dude’s territory on foot: an area about four blocks by three blocks, around three or so acres in size. There was a 7-Eleven just on the edge of that territory that had a great big dumpster, which Dude ate out from a lot. There was also a lot of houses included in said territory—a lot of backyards to prowl, a lot of porches to hide under.

And, finally, a lot of locations to spray. Dude hadn’t been neutered.

Tobias wondered how many feral kittens Dude had fathered (he wondered how many had lived and died). He tried not to think about that part too much. Instead, he focused on visiting when he could, and feeding Dude with food he bought with dropped money. Tobias kept a sharper eye out for dropped money nowadays.

Ax got a lot less cinnamon buns. Tobias didn’t feel guilty about that—Ax could feed himself; Cinnabon was just a treat for him. Dude was…well, he was at _least_ underfed. And Dude appreciated having food that he didn’t have to share with the rest of the colony.

Some part of Tobias thought that he should tell Rachel, or Cassie, or _someone_. Let Dude have a chance to get adopted by a better family, one who’d actually love him properly and could feed him more than tins of cheap food scraped together with people’s dropped change.

But Tobias stubbornly resisted. Oh, he has his reasons; Dude was probably too feral to easily adopt out. Tobias has heard many, many horror stories from Cassie about how overwhelmed pet shelters are these days, and how often the animals get put down if they couldn’t be adopted out. Better feral and live free than to be put to sleep.

And more selfishly, Dude _has_ an owner: him. Dude was _his_ cat, he could take care of his cat. The fact that Dude hunted and scavenged his own food more often than not didn’t matter; they made a matched pair, Dude and he—Tobias hunted and scavenged his own food too.

If the system had worked, Tobias wouldn’t have been living in a household where his relatives didn’t give a crap whether he lived or died. If the system had worked, cats like Dude would have a home, not just be put down when they got too overwhelming.

The system had failed them both. Why should Tobias give Dude back?

So Tobias kept his silence, and continued his secret visits. Even Rachel didn’t notice (or didn’t think to ask) about the increased number of stains on his clothes. Then again, since she also helped with Ax’s laundry, she has probably seen worse.

_You and me, cat._

 

One thing about cats in the system compared to cats that weren’t: those that were in the system had others to look out for them. Whether they could (would) do anything about it was another matter entirely, but at least there was that first step, that first advantage.

Dude has always been thin, and maybe a little mean.

Tobias really didn’t know enough about cats.

 

Tobias and Cassie were on the bus. Cassie carried a cat carrier on her lap. Tobias laced his hands together to try to keep them from trembling.

“I should’ve seen it earlier,” Tobias muttered. “I mean, he wasn’t eating last time, he’s been kind of lethargic too, but that was weeks ago. I thought…maybe he’d eaten before I visited, or got…I don’t know, kitty flu or something.”

Cassie squeezed his hand. “It could be a lot of things. We still could’ve caught it early,” she said, but Tobias thought there was a hint of doubt in her voice. “And maybe he was off hunting or something earlier today.”

“Maybe.” Earlier that afternoon, Tobias had wandered the entirety of Dude’s territory looking for him, to no avail.

His inner Marco-voice said the cat was probably just out hunting. The others, had they known, would probably even agree. And considering his visits weren’t exactly regular, Tobias had no room to argue that logic.  But still—just in case.

 _Just in case,_ Tobias had told himself as he demorphed and took to the skies, trading his weak human senses for the laser sight of a hawk.

He’d found Dude pretty quickly after that. Dude…hadn’t looked good, and Tobias had wheeled around and headed straight for Cassie. Now the two of them were on the bus, and the only reason they weren’t taking the quicker route was because Cassie pointed out that Dude didn’t like raptors.

Cassie gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s been, what, two years? More than, if you count the years before. He’s made it this far.”

“Yeah, and maybe his time has been long overdue,” and Tobias couldn’t keep the cynicism from his voice. His laced fingers felt like talons, digging into the too-soft flesh of his palms. “C’mon, Cassie, I’m an…” _animal_ “…expert myself. Wild animals don’t live long, for…a lot of reasons.”

Cassie winced and fell silent.

They found Dude exactly where Tobias last saw him (impossible to see without a bird’s eye view): inside the 7-Eleven’s dumpster, half-hidden by a bag of garbage. It was a wonder that he hadn’t been crushed by additional garbage bags thrown on top.

“Oh, no,” Cassie whispered as Tobias lifted the unresisting bundle. There was a whiff of ammonia.

“I’ll carry him.” Tobias shook his head at the carrier. Some part of him thought that he probably should worried about rabies or something, but Ax had said before that diseases didn’t carry over through morphs and he had less than two hours anyway. Worse he’d catch would be some fleas. “Cassie?”

Cassie bit her lip, looking at Dude’s dry, straw-like fur. “I don’t know. Kidney failure, probably. Those can manifest suddenly, or he could have leukemia as an underlying cause. Tobias, they’re not gonna let you on the bus with a sick cat like that.”

“Then we’ll walk,” Tobias answered, already striding away.

“Tobias…”

“Cassie…I’m no vet, but he’s not gonna last long.” Dude was wheezing softly against his ear as Tobias adjusted his hold. Dude, who’d never let Tobias touch him since they’d met again, didn’t even protest at the contact. “He’s already _cold_. I don’t want him to die in a box.”

Cassie took a deep breath. “I’ll call my dad. Maybe he’ll be able to pick us up on the way.”

 

Cassie’s father had picked them up on the way back. He’d taken one look at Dude, pursed his lips, and drove a little faster. In the barn, he’d hurried Dude away with Cassie at his heels, leaving Tobias to stand in the barn surrounded by cages full of what—ordinarily—would be his prey.

Tobias spent a few minutes refreshing his morphing clock (and kicking up quite a stir with the barn animals) then sat down on a bale of hay. He was patient. He was a predator. He could wait.

Walter didn’t make him wait very long, hurrying out of the examination room. Tobias jumped up, and all but fell over again at the expression on Walter’s face.

“Kidney failure.” Walter shook his head. “We’ve got him on IV fluids and painkillers. The lab tests will be back in a day or two to show how far along he is, but…I’d say he’s pretty far along. He still won’t eat.”

Tobias has forgotten how to make most facial expressions. He just stared.

Luckily, Walter took that as an appropriate sign of grief. “We can let you take him home, if you like; he still might last a few weeks with proper care. Or…we can put him to sleep here. Either way, you should probably call your parents. They should be informed.”

Tobias has an odd urge to laugh hysterically, only he couldn’t make his facial muscles move. Parents? _What_ parents?

Cassie tugged at her father’s sleeve. “Dad, Tobias probably…wants a few minutes to process this.”

“Right.” Walter sent Tobias an apologetic look. “Sorry, Tobias. Just…call me once you’ve decided.”

Cassie all but pushed her father out of the barn, then turned towards the examination room. “He’s over here, Tobias.”

He’d made the decision before he even started walking. Tobias crossed over to the table, eyes never leaving Dude. “Cassie, watch the door for me.”

“Why? What are you—oh,” Cassie breathed, staring at his morphing form with wide eyes. Only for a second, though. Then she darted to the door, watching for signs of approaching parents.

Tobias fluttered up to the examination table. Dude was lying on a heated sleeping pad, dozing. He stirred at Tobias’ approach, mouth opening (Tobias saw ulcers on Dude’s tongue and gums) in a yowl.

<Easy, boy,> Tobias whispered, putting a wingtip on Dude’s flank. <It’s just me.> He concentrated on the bundle of fur and felt the cat still as Dude’s DNA—his healthy, undamaged DNA—flowed into him.

Tobias remembered being the cat. The confidence, the coiled power, the delicate, liquid grace. He remembered Dude as he should be, healthy and strong.

Dude stayed docile and pliant as Tobias morphed back to human. Tobias’ hand (wing) never left the cat.

“Cassie,” he was surprised at how steady his voice was, “go get your dad.”

Cassie hesitated, eyes sad.

“It’s okay.” Tobias scratched Dude’s head with clumsy human fingers. “I don’t want him to suffer. He wouldn’t be comfortable out in the cold with me.”

His vision was blurring. Damn human eyes.

 

Walter didn’t press him on calling his parents. Maybe Cassie had said something to him on their way back. All Walter’d asked when he came in with the gloves, syringe and needle was a quiet, “Do you want the body afterwards?”

He was probably expecting a yes. He looked surprised when Tobias shook his head.

“Where I live…is not the place for a cat,” was all Tobias said as explanation.

Tobias held Dude’s paw with gloved hands (Walter had insisted) as Walter clipped away the hair and found an appropriate vein. Cassie placed a hand on his thin human shoulders.

Dude tensed at the needle, cracking open his eyes. He twitched and then stilled—stilled forever. Tobias counted to ten, then twenty, until he was sure it was over.

“I’m sorry, Tobias,” Walter said very quietly. He closed Dude’s eyes.

“It’s…okay.” _No it isn’t._ Tobias looked up at Walter. His face felt like plastic. “He’ll always be a part of me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Erin, the original plan was Dude got hit by a car and Tobias ate the roadkill before he realized who it was, so in that sense I think this was an improvement. Besides, the alternative is Dude living and wondering where the heck his Person went when Tobias left him a _second_ time at the end of the series—I didn’t think _that_ was better.
> 
> Yes. Um. Happy birthday, Erin? See, I left the Cake alone! *is bricked*


End file.
